As I Recall
by Shockra2000
Summary: How I think the 10th book should of ended. Goes into the school year, btw. Read and review, plz!
1. Chapter 1

Natalie stood, gaping. "You mean we're… we're poor now?" She couldn't believe it. Her mother just disowned her. She just couldn't wrap her mind around that.

"Penniless." Ian sighed in defeat.

"Actually," Mr. McIntyre intervened. "I should have mentioned this before the others left. Grace had an addendum to her will regarding everyone who made it through the gauntlet. There were eight of you- you will receive double the amount you turned down to get the first clue."

"It was a million dollars originally," Ian said. "So Natalie and I each get two million dollars? I suppose we could live on that." A crooked smile crept onto his face.

"That is such a relief!" Natalie let out a huge sigh. "Being poor wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but still-"

"You were only poor for about two seconds!" Dan laughed, rolling his eyes.

"Dan- the two million dollars apiece- that would be for us too!" Amy realized.

Ian, hearing the sound of Amy's voice for the first time after exiting the gauntlet, tucked his hands into his pockets and sauntered over to her. It was time to make amends.

Amy saw him coming and blushed. But the clue hunt had changed her. She used to be so naive, and… uncomfortable in her own skin. But ever since she discovered she was part of the Madrigals, _finally _finding where she belonged, she felt like she finally fit in. It had helped her become more confident. She realized she couldn't even remember the last time she had stuttered. She took a deep breath and prepared herself for what she knew was about to happen.

"Amy."

She nodded, slipping a small smile. "Hey."

He bit his lip. There were so many things to say, but he just couldn't find the right words for any of them.

"It was really courageous what you did." Amy shrugged one shoulder up, her smile inching slightly to the left.

_Breathtaking. _Ian sighed. With only that small gesture, she looked absolutely gorgeous.

"And what exactly was that…?" He asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you know what you did. You stood up to your mother. If I was in your position, with her holding a gun up to you and your sister, I don't think I would have been able to stand up to her." She didn't know he had it in him. Like her, the hunt must have changed him. For the better.

"Well we had to. Was there really any other choice?" Before she could speak, he started talking again. "And frankly, I've heard from almost every other team that they're jealous of how brave _you _are."

"Really?" She gasped.

"Yeah."

With his golden eyes searching her jade ones, it was almost as if they could have silent conversations, too.

And then he bent forward, his lips grazing her. He began to pull back, but Amy pushed up onto her tip-toes and continued the kiss. Her hands settled on Ian's neck and she felt more confident than ever.

That's when Dan groaned. "Ugh, this is _gross!_"

The two teenagers broke apart and cleared their throats awkwardly.

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on! Don't act all weird about it- everyone _knew _it was going to happen at one point or another."

Dan smirked. "Yup."

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"You know," Ian said suddenly, breaking the silence. "You and Dan…"

Natalie's eyes got wide. "What?" She screamed incredulously. "No way. Oh, god. I can't believe you even suggested that."

"Ew, gross!" Dan agreed. "Never. Not in a million years."

Natalie turned around to face him, eyebrow raised. "Excuse me? Are you saying I'm unappealing?"

"No!" Dan said. "I'm not saying that at all. I just can't imagine _us _getting together. That'd just be weird, right? I mean, I don't think you're unappealing at all! It's just-"

"Ha!" Ian laughed. "You admit it!"

Amy smiled.

"I do not! I was just saying…" Dan trailed off, then shot Ian a look. Amy couldn't help but laugh.

Nellie ambled over to their group, observing how close Ian and Amy stood to each other. "Guess what! I just bought your old apartment in Boston. Your aunt totally flipped. Ha!" Their au pair cracked up.

"She totally deserved that too." Dan said.

"But where's she gonna live now?" Amy asked empathetically.

"I don't know." Nellie said with a shrug. "I'm sure she'll find somewhere else. Whoo!" She paused. "Somehow, I'm guessing we're going to see a lot of Lover Boy over here." She gestured over to Ian.

"Well, now that we're on our own, we might as well move to Boston. Brilliant idea, Nella!"

"It's Nellie…" She mumbled.

"Right, sorry." Ian scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Well… what do we do know?" Natalie asked.

"I say we rent a hotel room and chill. Then maybe tomorrow we could head back to the United States. It'll good to be home." Amy sighed.

"Yeah. It will be." Dan nodded. "Except for the fact that this one guy in my grade is out to get revenge on me because I stole his pants one time from his gym locker…"

Nellie laughed. "After surviving the 39 clues, I think you'll be able to take him."

"And if you can't, I can always get him with my dart gun." Natalie offered. "After all, we _will _be in the same grade."

"Yeah! We can team up! I'll pull the pranks and when they come back for revenge, you can beat them up! Whoo! This'll be great!" And the kids started planning.

Amy turned toward Ian and smiled. "So you'll be in my grade."

"You don't sound very excited about that."

"Well, you have a British accent, you're super smart, and," She blushed at the last one, "and abnormally appealing." Ian laughed. "You'll have a lot of girls after you."

"Then a lot of hearts will have to be broken."

And they started kissing again.

**This is how I think Into The Gauntlet should have ended. There was absolutely NO mention of IanxAmy so I had to write this! Hope you like it. Plz review!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Hm." Ian said as he walked into the high school for the first time. Mobs of kids swarmed left and right, noise everywhere, and he was pretty sure everything was far from sanitary.

Amy could hear the distaste in his voice, but she grabbed his hand and proceeded him down the hallway. "Come on. We just got in! Don't turn back _now_."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Ian mumbled.

Amy rolled her eyes and continued to drag him along.

Ian suddenly got the feeling he was being watched… he took his gaze off of Amy and glanced around. Almost every girl he had passed had their eyes on him.

"Good god." Ian took in a big breath. This was going to be a long year.

Amy felt him slow down behind her and went over to him. "You okay?" She asked.

"Just peachy…" He took his eyes off of the swarming girls and back onto Amy. Her warm, cheerful face could always solve his problems. "So do you know if you have any classes with me?"

She looked down at her schedule. "Yeah… it looks like we have A, C, and F together."

Not as many as Ian would have liked, but good enough. "And those classes are…?"

"Math, Spanish, gym."

She despised the last one.

_Great. _Amy thought. _Now I can show him what a clutz I am…_

Ian smiled brightly and he could have sworn he heard a few of the girl's swoon. He made the loco sign to Amy and she laughed.

"It's alright… they're naturally ditzy." She explained.

"Mhm…" Ian smirked.

The first bell rang, dismissing them to homeroom.

"They do this alphabetically. I'm in C, and you're in K… You have to go to Mrs. Carronto for it. Meet you in A!" Amy flashed a brilliant smile before kissing Ian swiftly on the cheek. She turned and made her way down to her room, leaving Ian on his own to find who ever Mrs. Carronto was.

I'm sure all of you know the first day of school can be a favorite. Why? No learning, but better yet, no homework! Now that's all great and all, but when you're crammed into a little desk for forty-five minutes, sitting in the exact _opposite _sideof the room than your girlfriend, listening to a monotone-voiced teacher ramble on about the trigonometry they would learn this year, well… things can get pretty boring, pretty fast. Ian tried to find something to do, tap his pencil against the desk, flick his thumb past the edge of all of the papers in his binder, and even doodle. He was even so desperate, he stared at the clock, each minute seeming like an hour.

And finally- _finally_- when that horrid class was over, guess who was the first one out the door.

Yup, you guessed it. Ian.

But not without Amy of course. They were both eager to get out of there.

They split up for B period, Ian going to Social Studies, Amy to Science. They both counted down the seconds until they could be in the same class together.

They gathered their books up at the end of the period and fled down to the Spanish room. They sat right next to each other- no alphabetical seating, thank god- and started talking.

"Ah, Spanish." Ian sighed. "I think this will be one of my favorite classes."

"And why's that?" Amy asked.

"It's so simple!"

Amy smirked. "Sure, if you call learning a new language simple."

"Hola, beunos dias! Me llamo Ian Kabra. Como estas?"

_Hi, good morning! My name is Ian Kabra. How are you?_ Amy translated in her head.

"Uh… bien." Amy replied. "Y tu?"

"You have to make the 'y' sound like an 'e'." Ian explained.

Amy followed his instructions and rolled her eyes. "Critiquing me already?"

"Ci. Qué divertido!"

_What fun_. Amy translated. She laughed. "Gracias." She said sarcastically.

"De nada. No problemo."

The teacher walked in. "Let's start with 'Hola'!"

"Hola!" The class repeated.

"Que pasa?" She asked.

"Nada mucho."

"Buenos. Today is el uno de Septiembre. Write this down on a sheet of loose leave, por favor."

She gave us a little more time before saying, "Listos?"

"Listos!" The class repeated. And that was pretty much all they did for the entire period…

The bell rang forty-five minutes later and Señora Remez dismissed us. "Hasta mañana!"

"Adios." Amy called- she wanted to make a good impression on her teachers.

The Amy and Ian went their separate ways, but meet up just like magnets for lunch.

They went to the cafeteria.

Amy had a weird feeling about something… She looked around and saw nothing, so she shrugged it off.

Ian had his eyebrow raised questioningly, but Amy shook her head, telling him it was nothing.

They went into the lunch line, but Amy couldn't stop thinking about the tension in the air. But then again, it could just be the funky cafeteria food.

And then suddenly, she screamed.

**I decided to make it a sequel! Thanks to all your awesome reviews, I just couldn't say no! Now I have a question… Say our favorite couple is in band or orchestra. What instrument do you think Amy would play, but more importantly, what instrument do you think Ian would play? Please review! Hasta Luego! **


	3. Chapter 3

"Dan Cahill. How great it is to see you again," a menacing voice scoffed from up above the young Cahill.  
Dan sighed deeply and dared a glance upwards. Crooked yellow teeth hung out of Simon McGinnuss's mouth. His fowl breath poisoned the air. Plump pimples inhabited almost every inch of his skin.  
"You, too, Simon." Dan lied. "You're not still mad at me for stealing your pants after gym class, are you?"  
"Of course not." Simon snickered. But the look on his face told otherwise.  
His meaty hand hovered in the air for a second before darting its way over to Dan. Simon would have punched him if Dan hadn't been in the clue hunt. It had made him stronger; I mean, if you're battling your relatives, fighting your enemies who aren't related to you, and having near-death experiences almost daily, you learn that a simple punch from a bully is nothing.  
Simon sneered and curled his lip upwards. "Well I see you're a little more nimble then you used to be."  
Dan shrugged. "Or maybe you're just getting slower. Or more predictable."  
This just aggravated McGinnuss more. Another series of punches were flung at Dan, but he kept his cool, missing them all.  
"Why you-" Before Dan could fly out of the way, Simon had predicted his move and grabbed Dan's pants, lifting him up for an ultimate wedgy.  
"Youch!"  
Just in time, Natalie jumped around the corner with her dart gun loaded... pointed straight at Simon's forehead.  
"Put. Daniel. Down." She commanded with an authority no one could refuse.  
The bully was trying hard not to be intimidated by her, but it was obviously no use. "W-what are you gonna do? Shoot me with your dart gun?"  
"Um, yeah. That was kinda the plan."  
He glanced around nervously to see if there were any witnesses. But they were in an empty hallway. So there was no one to see her shoot him. Even still, he underestimated the young girl. For he had no idea that she was a Kabra, part of the long, powerful Cahill line, and someone you most DEFINITELY do not mess with.  
"Try me." He snarled.  
And that was his mistake.  
Instantly, Natalie's finger squeezed down on the trigger.  
And down went Simon McGinnuss.

"Ahhh!" Amy screamed as she fell to the floor. She realized that another boy had bumped into her. As she met the culprit's eyes, she realized why she had a bad feeling- he had been stalking her for the past four years, and you could smell him from a mile away. Drew Anderson. Or Neanderthal Anderson, as Amy liked to call him.  
"Oh, hi, Amy! Do you want me to help you up?" The boy asked, hastily getting up, just so he could help up his crush.  
"No, she's fine." Ian said, outstretching his hand towards Amy. She happily took it.  
"Oh." Neanderthal Anderson grunted unhappily. "You going to band today?" That was the only class the two had had together since sixth grade, and Drew used it as a time to watch, talk to, and stare at Amy. It creeped her out. Big time. But she didn't have the heart to tell him.  
"Yeah." Amy answered.  
But then Ian, being the Lucian he was, grabbed Amy around the waist. "So, what's your name again?"  
"Drew." The boy's hand ran its way through his greasy hair.  
"Oh, well, Drew," Ian looked down a few inches at him. "I'm sorry to tell you, but Amy's my girlfriend."  
"Oh." Anderson's head fell. "Oh. Well, I'll see you around, Amy." He proceeded out of the lunch line.  
When he was gone, Amy turned towards Ian. "Thank you SO much for getting rid of Neanderthal Anderson for me."  
"Neanderthal Anderson?"  
"Yeah, sorry. That's what I call him. I mean, come on! I don't mean to be mean, but he's so primitive! He barely understands words that I use that are multi-syllabic, and by the looks of it, he doesn't even realize that showers exist."  
Ian laughed. "I've never heard you be so insulting!"  
"I'm sorry-"  
"No, be a little badass once in awhile." (A/N I know they didn't curse in the books since they were for kids, but being that they're teenagers, I'm assuming they would at times.) "Break the rules."  
Amy's face turned red. "Break the rules? Gosh, I don't know if I'd even WANT to."  
"You're such a goody-two-shoes." Ian smirked.  
"There's nothing wrong with that." Amy shot back playfully.  
"Not when you're as cute as you are."

"Dan Cahill and Natalie Kabra, to the office please." One of the secretaries announced over the loud speakers.  
Dan banged his head against his desk. This couldn't be good.  
"You can go." His teacher told him.  
He dragged himself into the hallway just to find Natalie, oozing rage like yolk from a broken egg.  
"How do they have any right to call US down to the office when that FREAK was the one who did everything?"  
"I know it's unfair. So that's why we should tell them how we're not the ones to blame and Simon is."  
"Yes." Natalie agreed as she thought through Dan's plan. "That is exactly what we shall do."  
When they got to the office, Simon was sneering, yellow teeth glinting and all.  
"Take a seat." The principal gestured to two pulled out chairs.  
The cousins took them and then waited for the principal to speak.  
"So I heard from Mr. McGinnuss that you two ganged up on him and knocked him unconscious with a dart gun. Would either of you care to explain?"  
"Sure." Dan said. "I was minding my own business when Simon came up to me and started trying to punch me. I dodged his punches, but then he gave me a wedgie. Natalie came to my rescue and defended me. It's all his fault. If he didn't start the stupid fight, no one would be here right now."  
"But that's not the point, Mr. Cahill. Did you or did you not bring a dart gun to school and use it on one of the children?" The principle looked down at Dan, and he knew before anything else could proceed that he and Natalie were stuck. He had been in her office so many times that the principle just assumed it was always his fault... and most of the time it was. But this time it wasn't.  
"I admit," Natalie started. "That I did, indeed, bring in a dart gun, but how are children like ourselves supposed to defend ourselves from bullies like Simon if we're smaller and weaker? Someone needs to stand up to them for once."  
"I agree." The principle nodded. "But bringing in a dart gun is absolutely immoral and unheard of. You should be ashamed of yourselves! So, two weeks suspension for bringing a weapon into school and actually USING it on a child."  
"-But Simon tried to punch me!" Dan cried. "Doesn't he get anything?"  
"He'll get a call to his parents."  
"And we get suspended from school for two weeks! That doesn't seem fair at all!"  
"You're lucking I'm not expelling you."  
Natalie's eyes blazed like fire. She was FURIOUS.  
"Now, get back to class, you two. I hope you learned your lesson."  
As the two walked back out into the hallway, Natalie fumed to Dan. "I swear, if the little git hadn't picked a fight we wouldn't have been in that mess in the first place. And who does that woman think she is? Does she have any right to pick on us? He deserved to be severely more punished than he was. When Ian finds out about this, he's going to, going to..."  
"Going to what?" Dan mumbled. "Sue them? He's not old enough to."  
"But we can't stand for this! This is an outrage!"  
"Well what else can we do?"  
And for once, the Kabra said nothing.


End file.
